Camp Furniture

Below is an excerpt from The Prairie Traveler A handbook for over land expeditions. ©1859

CAMP FURNITURE.
The accompanying illustrations present some convenient articles of portable camp furniture.
Camp Chair No. 1 is of oak or other hard wood. Fig. 1 represents it opened for use; in Fig. 2 it is closed for transportation. A is a stout canvas,

forming the back and seat; b, b, b are iron butthinges ; c, c are leather straps, one inch and a quarter wide, forming the arms; d is an iron rod, with nut and screw at one end.
Camp Chair No. 2 is made of sticks tied together with thongs of buckskin or raw hide.
Camp Chair No. 3 is a very comfortable seat, made of a barrel, the part forming the seat being filled with grass.
Camp Table. Fig. 1 represents the table folded for transportation; in Fig. 2 it is spread out for use. A is the top of the table; a, a are side boards, and c, c are end boards, turning on butt-hinges, b, b, b.

Field Cots. In No. 1, A represents the cot put up for use; B, the cot folded for transportation. The legs turn upon iron bolts running through the head and foot boards; they are then placed upon the canvas, and the whole is rolled up around the side pieces. In No. 2 the upper figure represents the cot put up for usej the lower shows it folded for transportation. A is a stout canvas; b, b are iron butt-hinges; c, c, the legs; d, d, leather straps, with buckles, which hold the legs firm; f, f, ends, which fold upon hinges; ff, y, cross-bars from leg to leg. This cot is strong, light, and portable.
Camp Bureau. This cut represents two chests, A, A, with their handles, a, a ; the covers taken off, they are placed one upon the other, and secured by the clamps B, B ; d shows the division between the two chests. When it is to be transported, the
knobs, c, are unscrewed from the drawers, the looking-glass, is removed, the drawers are filled with clothing, etc., and the lids are screwed on.
Mess-chest. A represents the chest open for table; B is the same closed; C is the upper tray of tin, with compartments, b, yr.; E is the lower wooden tray, divided into compartments, a, a, for various purposes, and made fast to the bottom of the chest; d, d are lids opening with hinges; f (in figure B) is a wooden leg, turning upon a hinge, and fitting snugly between two pieces of wood screwed upon the cover.

Furniture Designs of the 19th Century

Below is a guideline of the various furniture designs of the 19th century. I've only put in the slightest amount of details, there are a lot of examples of various images of these types of furniture online. Find the period that your novel is set in and check out the furniture of the day. Or what kind of furniture your characters were handed down from their parents, grand parents or even great grandparents. Enjoy.

Neoclassicism, 1790-1840 took it's designs from Ancient Greek & Roman

Federal Period 1790-1815 was light and slender, clean lines and delicate molding, or none at all. Legs were straight, flat surfaces with decorative inlay or painting

Empire Period 1815-1840 Developed in France, heavy and monumental, thick legs and pillars, carved acanthus leaves, spiral twists and fluted columns

American Victorian 1865-1880 The Victorian Age 1840-1900 Structural and Decorative Details, American was patterned after English. Spool like turnings formed legs of beds, headboards and footboards. Heavy with straight lines, curved lines on in decorations. Marbled covered tables, washstands and dressers were quite popular. Dressers which often reached near the ceilings.

Neo-Gothic Revival Perion 1840-1860 Adapted forms from Gothic architecture and very ornamental.

Rococo Revival Period 1840-1860 Commonly referred to as "French Antique" revival of the rococo style by the French, very intricate with asymmetrical scrolls, curves and carvings.

Renaissance Revival Period 1860-1874 Again French influenced massive forms and rectangular construction. Straighter lines, arched tops, and prominent cresting as well as inlaid table tops.

Eastlake Period 1875-1885 Simple rectilinear construction and not a look of excessive curves were produced after Charles Eastlake published his book, Hints on Household taste.

Turn of the Century 1890-1900 basically incorporated all styles.

Arts and Crafts finish out the century for the last five years. 1895-1910 It emphasized form and structure rather than decoration, in other words, functional.

19th Century Bedroom Furnishings Part 3

This is the final post on the Furnishings of the Bedroom. I hope you've enjoyed seeing what was a part of their design and thinking from the 19th Century.

For this excerpt I've inserted the illustrations as the writer mentioned them.

BEDROOM FURNITURE.
Fashionable Furniture.—Architect designing Furniture.

IN the illustration (Fig. 46)

we have several articles of bedroom furniture, modelled after the style of the seventeenth century, which recommends itself by its characteristic simplicity and honesty of treatment. The bed has a canopy framework, from which curtains are suspended, the cove being covered with stamped leather. The decoration in the panels may be inlaid, or painted simply in stencil pattern.
Fig. 47

shows a dressing-table of the same period, which, in some respects, answers the purpose of a bureau, being liberally supplied with drawers. There is, also, a corner cabinet, intended for a jewel-case, back of which a small burglar and fire-proof box may be inserted in the brickwork, and entirely masked by an inner door. Medicine-cases are often constructed in this manner.
Figs. 48 and 49

are a wash-stand and commode of the same school. Fig. 37

is a hanging cabinet, similar to the one in the library (Fig. 30).

(The hanging cabinet is on the left hand side of the image.)
One great difficulty in the way of introducing furniture of this description is, that people do not know where to find it. They usually go to a fashionable dealer, and are compelled to choose from what they see before them. It is true that several of our manufacturers have attempted to offer something better in the way of design, and with considerable success and profit. But their great mistake has been that, knowing they had the monopoly, they made their prices so high that few could afford to deal with them, thus confining the possibility of exercising good taste to wealthy persons alone. There is really no reason why this furniture should be more expensive than any other. That fashionable upholsterers should subordinate art to sordid and mercenary considerations indicates a short-sighted policy; for the wider the diffusion of art culture among the people, the greater will be the demand for furniture of artistic design. If one of their patrons desires anything new, they will usually prepare a design, and with it submit a price; but should he ask to retain the drawing in order to get further estimates, the privilege is promptly refused, and the statement usually vouchsafed that they are not in the habit of
allowing other manufacturers to profit by their brains. One is, therefore, compelled to take an inferior design from another establishment, or pay the price of the original estimate, exorbitant as it may be. There is a simple remedy for all this which, as I have mentioned before, is coming into practice.
Source: Modern Dwellings in Town and Country Adapted to American Wants ©1878

19th Century Bedroom Furnishings Part 2

The first tidbit comes from a lecture given in England in 1880 by Edward Edis. The second comes from Ward & Lock's Home Book. In the book he continues on for an entire chapter so I've given a link.

The blinds of a bedroom should be of some soft toned colour, and not the vivid staring white and yellow to which we are so accustomed. I need not dwell further on this portion of my subject, as the cheerfulness and comfort of a bedroom is quite as much dependent upon the graceful taste of arrangement of the ladies of the house, as upon the upholstery and fittings with which it is furnished. There are innumerable small items of furniture which all tend to make up the general requirements of a bedroom, which with care and thought can be provided at comparatively small cost, in the way of hanging-glasses, jewel boxes, boot racks, bonnet cases, cases for medicine bottles, without lumbering up the generally small floor surface of the room, provided that they be thought of and arranged for, before any set or so-called ‘suite' of bedroom furniture is bought; for a few pounds all these necessary arrangements can be provided in suitable and useful form, in place of the usually extravagant, and ofttimes comparatively useless, articles of furniture which are generally considered necessary in the bedrooms of the house : chests of drawers should be so arranged that the lower portion may be adapted for clothes, while small flanking cup. boards may be provided on each side for the hundred and one small articles which are necessary in an ordinary family household, and which all help to make up the harmonious whole of a well-furnished house. In a small room the chest of drawers may be so fitted up that it shall do duty for a dressing-table with lookingglass complete, or the recesses formed by the chimney breast may be fitted with shelves and drawers, bonnet boxes and boot racks, all combined, with hanging spaces for clothes, at a much smaller expense than that of the elaborate and heavy articles which are sold as ‘wardrobes, and which all take up too much of the wall and floor space, in the usually cramped area, of an ordinary bedroom. The mantel-pieces may be fitted up with cupboards, shelves, and glasses, so as to add materially to the artistic character, as well as the general comfort of the room; and at a small expense a plain writing shelf or table may be attached to any of these pieces of furniture, and made to fold up or slide in, when not absolutely required for use. Often a bedroom is made to do duty as a private sitting-room as well, and too much care cannot therefore be taken to design the general furniture so that it may combine the necessary requirements for general use, as well as for the storage of clothes and linen, and so that the greatest amount of accommodation may be obtained in the smallest amount of space. Hanging book-shelves with cupboards on each side for medicine bottles are invaluable in a bedroom. I cannot too strongly advocate the desirability of all furniture being designed, in the general rooms of a town house, so that it may afford accommodation for the numerous requirements to which it has to be put, and cannot too strongly protest against the generally inconsistent and in great part useless articles, which are provided nowadays by ordinary upholsterers in the so-called ‘suite' of bedroom furniture. In my next and last lecture I shall endeavour to treat generally of the every-day articles of domestic USe. In decoration and furniture, it is above all desirable to avoid all eccentricity and seeming quaintness in design, with no particular use or object, to take care that everything in furniture shall be strong, serviceable, and fitting for its particular use, and to remember that elaboration and expense are really as unnecessary elements in the furnishing of a house as in dress and decorative.
Source: Decoration & Furniture of Town Houses ©1881

ROOMS USED BY NIGHT.
Bedroom Furniture—Necessary Articles—Bedsteads-Mattresses and BeddingBed Furniture-Bedclothes-The Washstand—Toilet Tables—The Toilet Glass —The Cheval Glass—Chests of Drawers^The Linen Press—The Lady s Wardrobe—The Gentleman's Wardrobe—Nfinor Articles—Invalid Furniture—lne Dressing Room—An Objectionable Habit—The Home Hospital.
268. BEDROOM FURNITURE. In treating of rooms used by day, it was necessary to regard each kind of reception room, and the furniture it contains, according to the use to which it is put. There will, however, be no occasion to do this in the present chapter, for the bedroom is the only kind of room used by night, and although bedrooms differ greatly from one another, according to the manner in which they are furnished, yet there is but one set of articles common to all, more or less of which articles are used. We will, therefore, glance briefly at the furniture that may be found in any well-appointed bedroom and its adjunct, the dressing-room.
260. DRESSING-ROOMS AND BEDROOMS. It is desirable that a dressing-room and bedroom should be immediately contiguous, and that there should be access to the dressing-room from the bedroom without having to go from the bedroom on to a landing to reach the dressing-room. In case of a married couple, for whom a dressingroom is far more necessary than for single persons, the dressing-room should be furnished with a view to the husband's use, and the bedroom for the special requirements of the wife. When the dressing-room is large enough, it should contain a bedstead at least 6 feet long by 2 feet 6 inches wide, which will prove of service on many occasions.

NECESSARY ARTICLES. In speaking of the furniture of the bedroom, we must notice the following articles:
1. The Bedstead, and its Palliasse, Mattresses, Bed, Bolster, and
Pillows.
2. The Bedclothes, consisting of Pillow and Bolster-cases, Sheets,
Blankets, Quilts, or Counterpanes.
3. The Washstand and its fittings, including Toilet-service, Toilet
pail, Can and Foot-bath, Water-bottle and Tumbler, Willow splash screen, frc.
4. The Toilet-table, with Toilet-glass, Toilet-cover, and Toilet-tailt
set.
5. The Cheval Glass.
6. Chest of Drawers.
7. Lady's Wardrobe.
8. Bed-steps and Pedestal.
9. Towel Horse.
10. Bed Table.
In speaking of the furniture of the dressing-room, we need not notice more than —
1. The Gentleman's Wardrobe.
2. The Boot and Shoe Horse. All other articles that would find a place there having been mentioned with reference to the bedroom, we must then proceed to say a few words on— ,
Appliances for Hanging Clothes.
Source: Ward and Lock's Home Book ©18
The chapter continues, here's a link Chapter 14

19th Century Bedroom Furnishing

Below the excerpts come from The Furniture Gazette and speaks to the types of Furniture designs for the 1884 Bedroom. I've included two illustrations from the same periodical. Enjoy!


ORIGINAL DESIGN FOR A
BEDROOM SUITE.

A FEW years back a Wardrobe was simply a Cupboard, sometimes of deal and at other times of mahogany. The better, or rather the more expensive, class of Wardrobe (for there was very little difference in the construction) was invariably of mahogany, the enrichment being of the most meagre description. If economy was not an object, it was made "round-cornered" or breakfronted, as the case might be. We have changed all that now, and the manufacturer who only keeps such goods in stock will find very few customers. To satisfy present requirements, a Wardrobe must, besides containing all the interior accommodation of the old-fashioned ones, present a far more attractive exterior.
One of our Separate Plates shows a piece of furniture of the improved type, which would, we think, form a tasteful addition to a bedroom if properly carried out. The choice of woods must depend largely on the surroundings and on individual taste; but in our opinion walnut or rosewood, with light inlays, would find most admirers. The centre glass is bevelled, and the diamonds in the small side doors are also of silvered bevelled plates.
The same remarks as to wood apply to remainder of Suite, shown on the second Plate. The diamond-shaped panels in Wash-stand doors should be of wood, not glass, as they are below the eye and useless for reflection. The decorations of a bedroom, we may add, should be as unobtrusive as possible, and in pale, soft tints.

WE illustrate herewith a complete Suite of Bedroom Furniture. Although wooden bedsteads are not in as general favour as they were years ago, they still enjoy a certain amount of popularity. The one figured on our Separate Plate is a half-tester. It has a panelled and carved high head-board, ornamental foot-rail, and square posts partly fluted. The Wardrobe has all the usual accommodation, including hanging cupboards, shelves for books and ornaments, and several large and small drawers. The dressing - table is replete with the customary requisites. In the washstand provision is made for two cupboards and a centre drawer. The back is filled in with tiles, and a looking-glass is fixed in the centre of the back. The seat and part of the back of the chairs are stuffed. The different items here illustrated are intended to be made up in rosewood, light coloured silk hangings being used in the room; and the chairs would, of course, be covered with materials to match. The Bedroom Suite under notice, which is of an effective character, has been designed by Mr. James Peddler, manufacturer of furniture, of Cranmer-road, Brixton.
(Unfortunately the illustrations were not fully copied but you can get an idea from the descriptions given.)


PERHAPS no other description of furniture has been so greatly improved during recent years as that intended for the bedroom. It is now almost universally recognised that a room intended for repose ought to contain nothing which can fatigue the eye. Time was when huge four-posters were considered indispensable to every sleeping-apartment: when toilet-tables were encircled with a sort of muslin petticoat, and when most other pieces of bedroom furniture were mainly conspicuous for their bad design and their ill adaptation to their intended purpose. Happily all this has been changed: and our modern sleeping-apartments are frequently the embodiment of good taste in the matter of decoration as well as furniture.
Source: The Furniture Gazette ©1884

1881 Brass work designs for Furniture

These are fancy English Brass work Designs for Cabinets.

CABINET BRASSWORK.
One cannot but be struck with the manner in which ornamental metal-work was displayed in old German and Flemish coffers, &c, and in contrasting them with similar articles of modern date, one naturally realises that we are decidedly far behind those good old craftsmen. In this old work of theirs, if we meet with a hinge there is no attempt at concealment, but the opportunity is at once availed of for a display of the maker's art. A lock-plate, or even a nail, seems to have been regarded as affording the artist a cban'e of showing his skill and ingenuity. It would be well if our cabinet-makers were to follow
in the footsteps of these handicraftsmen, and bear in mind that it is not necessary for a lock to be hidden, but that there is every reason why it should display charms of its own. The sketches shown on one of our Separate Vlates have been designed with this object in view, and we would advise manu facturers to give up the use of plain, polished surface brasswork, replacing it by hammered, ribbed, or punched articles. The substitution of the latter for the former would add greatly to the charm of many an article of furniture. The ten designs for drawerhandles, scutcheons, &c, referred to are from the pencil of Mr. R. A. Boyd, of 5, Poplargrove, West Kensington-park.

1881 Wardrobe & Cabinet

The illustrations below are English design and if your characters were to purchase them more than likely they wouldn't have been able to in 1881. However, if your character is living in America and stumbles upon this magazine "The Furniture Gazette" it could inspire him or her to build one like it. Just a couple random ideas you could make use of these tidbits with.

DESIGN FOR A WARDROBE.
The Wardrobe that forms the subject-matter of one of our sheets of illustrations belongs to the Bedroom Suite shown in our last issue. In style, it partakes somewhat of the Chippendale character. It is made both in walnut and in pitch pine, with bevelled plate-glass in the centre. The wardrobe, as well as the above cabinet, have been manufactured by Messrs. Bamett Moss & Co., of Great Eastern-street, Old-street.

DESIGN FOR A CABINET.
An Ebonised Early English Cabinet is illustrated on our third Plate. It is of solid construction, without being massive in appearance. Cupboard, drawer, and shelf room have been provided in such a manner that almost every nook of the Cabinet has been turned to good advantage.

1881 Furniture Chair Back Designs

Below are 12 illustrations of various chair back designs from 1881, as included is the brief description from the original source.

ORIGINAL SKETCHES FOR CHAIR.BACKS.
IT has been well observed that a slavish imitation of antique styles, probably unsuited in some of their solid qualities to the lighter and more variable tone of modern society, is not desirable. This remark applies with special force to chairs, for, without being disposed to dispute the merits of many a fine old specimen that has been handed down to us from the days of Chippendale and Sheraton, there can be no doubt that in m.iny particulars such seats are not suited to exact reproduction in the nineteenth century. That novel ideas may, however, be evolved from the old JBateriftl is forcibly illustrated by the dozen Chair-backs delineated on one of our Separate Hates. They are not by any means all of an equal degree of merit, and yet there is, perhaps, not one of them but may be turned to useful account by the cabinet-maker of our own day. There is, indeed, ample room for improvement in this particular direction, for too much of a family likeness is apparent in many modern chairs. The designs in question are from the pencil of Mr. A. Weatberstone.

Self Rocking Bassinette

Here's a simple tidbit but something you might find handy for your stories. The illustration below is a self rocking bassinette (which today we spell it as bassinet). This comes from an 1881 publication.

1884 Dinner Wagon

Don't be fooled by the title but that was the name given to these Dinning Room pieces. Note the wheels on the bottom. These images and information come from The Furniture Gazette ©1884.

THE Dinner-waggon is a most useful adjunct to the dining-room, although it is not so much required now as it used to be, and for this reason, doubtless, that the modern sideboard is provided with more shelf-room, &c, than formerly; many of the modern designs form a sort of combination dinner-waggon and sideboard. In a small-sized room a piece of furniture of this description is found very convenient. When the dining-room is large enough to conveniently hold a dinner- waggon, space should certainly be spared for one. It should have a prominent position, so as to be seen to advantage. The details, should match the other articles in the room, and notably the sideboard, which latter is necessarily the most important piece of furniture in the apartment.

Figure 74

Fig. 74 shows a dinnerwaggon plain and simple in character, and the design will readily explain itself. We will, however, suggest a few alterations which may be preferred by some of our readers. Instead of the two bottom drawers a cellarette might be substituted, enclosed with a door which could have either a plain or bevelled panel; the pillars are shown turned, but square ones could be used if desired. The ends of bottom part are intended to be enclosed, but could be made open. The square part of uprights would then look better if turned. This is, however, partly a matter of individual taste.

Figure 75

In our second design (Fig- 75) three drawers are shown, with two cupboards below. If it be necessary to reduce the cost the latter could easily be dispensed with, and the space left open. The panel underneath the shelf might either be of wood or silvered glass. The latter would probably prove the more effective method of treatment, or at least that which would find most favour with the majority of customers.

Figure 76

THE construction of our next illustration of dinnerwaggons (Fig. 76), we need hardly say, is more elaborate than that of those figured in our last paper. In order to vary the designs, we have, in this instance, shown the panels, drawers, &c, enriched with inlaid marble.

Figure 77

Unfortunately I didn't find detail information about this last design.

Carpets

Below is an excerpt from the book "Art Decoration Applied to Furniture" regarding Carpets. Skim the article for some interesting tidbits in what went into selecting a carpet for your home during the 19th Century. The book was published in 1878.

CARPETS.
AFTER the appearance of the hall, the carpets give the first impression of the house to the person who enters, and they afford constant and countless sensations to the person who stays —unconscious sensations of comfort, if they are suitable; very conscious and continual ones of discomfort and annoyance, if they are inharmonious, glaring, and self-asserting.

The carpet is to the room exactly what the background is to the picture: it throws up the whole effect, the main features and their suggestions, and is content with that part. The moment it makes itself obtrusive or in the least degree noticeable, it becomes vulgar and disagreeable. It should, indeed, be such that one forgets to observe it, or if caused to do so by any accident, finds its perfection and quiet beauty with a little pleased surprise. What is usually called the quality of the carpet is of no sort of consequence in comparison to these qualities, although the want of harmony could hardly fail to be felt if a rich tapestry were laid upon the floor of an inferior little room with shabby walls and cheap chairs, or if a common ingrain were stretched upon the floor of a drawing-room with inlaid walls, boule cabinets, Venetian mirrors, and gilt sofas. It goes without saying, of course, that the unities in this regard are just as much to be preserved in the furnishing of a room as in the composition of a drama or any other work of art, and not unity of style so much as of character: the room makes its toilet; and we should think but poorly of the lady's taste who, with her trailing satins and her jewels, wore calf-skin brogans and cotton gloves.
The color of the carpet should always be chosen in relation to the general design of the room. To secure a thoroughly pictorial effect to the eye as a whole, and a comfortable one to the senses, the carpet, a little darker than other portions, should present the main body tint from which the rest of the room works up in lighter tints, unless strong contrasts rather than blending shades are desired.

The figure, or pattern, of the carpet should usually be small, and always should be treated conventionally, or with a near approach to the conventional, that is, without the attempt at natural imitations of fruit and flowers and Cupids and shells, but in the suggestions of things arranged upon geometrical base, better if the repeat is not to be traced at first glance. If the colors are well mingled, bit by bit will come out in its turn, and what produces but a negative effect altogether will be seen by itself to be bright and rich and fine.

Gothic Furniture Design from the 19th Century

So you thought Gothic elements of design went out long before the 19th century, apparently that is not true. Here are some examples of Gothic furniture design from a 19th Century source. These are three chair designs from 1854 with some detail illustrations.
Three Chairs

Chair Posts Designs

Detailed Illustrations from various parts of the wood carvings.

1839 Furnishings Part 3

Wash Stands for japanned work.

Teapoys.
Varying considerably from the design in plate 3, particularly in the forms of the blocks; the supports of the lower two are of very plain turned work, intended for French polish.

A Toilet
Table And Glass.—Stuffing is introduced upon the stretcher rail, as a rest for the feet; and a draw is at each end instead of the usual one in front, as being more convenient for the person while sitting at the table.

Ladies' Work Tables,
The first has a draw in front and a pouch formed by ribs of thick wire, which falls, and forms an opening, by disengaging the snap beneath the centre of the draw.

1839 Furnishings Part 2

Sofas.
The principal ornamental parts are intended to be carved in relief only, and the leaves in the front rail of the first design are produced by being first ploughed like a moulding and then cut into form.

Sofa Ends

Couches.—The very plain parts, which frequently occur in the turned work, (and here are seen in the legs of the first Couch) are intended to shew the beauty of the French polish; and when a hanging husk appears as from the scroll, it should be in slight relief only.

Couch Ends

Couches.
The rosettes introduced here and in many of the other plates, it should be remembered, are intended to be turned by the lathe into the form, and then finished by being channeled into leaves, as a saving in the expence of carving.

Sofas.
The carved work of these should be neatly executed and of very delicate projection, otherwise a vulgarity in appearance would be the consequence.